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I want to be able to add my Final Cut Projects and Events folders to Time Machine, but annoyingly Apple have decided to put a Render Files folder within each and every Events folder.

Is there a way of moving the folders to a different location on the hard drive, such as a Caches folder? Or is there some way of telling Time Machine to ignore folders containing the words "Render Files" (using some kind of script perhaps)?

Jowie
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2 Answers2

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I have realised today, that OS X seems to automatically omit Render Files in the Time Machine Backup.

Apparently, Time Machine intentionally doesn't backup certain files/folder. The file /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd.bundle/Contents/Resources/StdExclusions.pl‌​ist includes all absolute paths (globally and for each user) that TimeMachine ignores, as suggested by this article. File-patterns, are, however, not included in this file.

Note

I have examined this behaviour by comparing the two directories after a completed backup:

diff --brief -r timemachinefolder localfolder
Sebastian Hojas
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    The list suggests these exclusions are from CCC and not Time Machine. In your research, did you find anything from Apple about this behaviour? – Graham Miln Jan 24 '16 at 13:09
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    Correct, and that bugged me as well. I could reproduce the behaviour on my local machine, but I would love to see official documentation on this. Will change my wording regarding the link. – Sebastian Hojas Jan 25 '16 at 09:28
  • An article on shiftedbits reveals the following file /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd.bundle/Contents/Resources/StdExclusions.plist. This file contains all that Time Machine skips by default on OS X! – Graham Miln Jan 25 '16 at 10:10
  • That helps a lot, but it only includes absolute paths (for globally and for each user), not specific folder patterns, for instance. PS: I have just realised my fail that the article didn't even relate to TimeMachine. My bad, and thanks for the correction! – Sebastian Hojas Jan 25 '16 at 10:16
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One simple solution (2018, FCPX 10.4, macOS 10.13) is simply to keep render files external to your FCPX library file in a location which you exclude from Time Machine. Apple macOS Time Machine can exclude folders, but not individual files or file patterns.

For your FCPX library, examine the Library Properties. In the Inspector window by "Storage Locations" click the "modify settings" button and then change the Backups location to a folder, not the library. See FCP X help article "Manage Storage Locations"

For example you could create and choose a folder /Users/myhomefolder/Movies/FCP X Cache And Renderfiles, and exclude it from Time Machine in System Preferences -> Time Machine -> Options.

Each library will have a .fcpcache bundle of the same name generated for it. These files can be regenerated and re-rendered from source media if they are lost or deleted. See "Manage Render Files"

Mic Channel
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